While not new, Gamefly has always been a good deal for renting out games for all the major consoles. Assuming consumers have the time to play and return games at a reasonable rate, renting out games through Gamefly can save a lot of money versus buying games to play.
Gamefly also has PC game sales and PC games that can be rented under an unlimited PC play option. Although I love the concept, the available title selections leave me a little disappointed even after the service has been available for months. It only contains old PC games that I have already beaten and not anything that I would consider new. Of course, if you haven't played any games for a few years then it does have some good ones like Bioshock and Assassin's Creed but for the rest of us it doesn't really provide anything compelling.
My guess is that the service suffers from the same problem that Netflix does - content providers are unwilling to provide the content for business reasons. I applaud the service but until they have recent games then it doesn't really add any value.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Digital Game Management Problems
Over the past few years there has been a huge rise in the quality and quantity of digital distribution platforms:
I love the competition that results in lower prices for my games but as I have purchased over 400 digital games (and counting), I have discovered new issues that arise from owning so many games that you don't have sitting on a shelf.
First, we should start with how I use to take stock of my game collection - by looking at the bookshelf. Like movies, I would stack all of my games in a bookshelf organized by platform. Just by glancing at them, I could tell how many games I own (and consequently how many games I still haven't finished). It acted as a constraint against the purchase of new games because if I had a lot of games sitting on the shelf then I knew I didn't need to go out and buy more. Once I finished a game, I could sell it on ebay. If I sold enough of them, then I could look at the bookshelf, see that I was low on games, and feel fine about purchasing more.
With the rise of digital distribution, I no longer have a stocked bookshelf. So whenever I look at it I feel like I need to get more games. If possible, I always buy the PC version of a game (unless it was a horrible port) when it goes on sale. And due to Steam and others, there are tons of sales going on all the time. So the combination of amazing savings and the drive to purchase new games has led to me owning more than I have time to play.
Now, the easy solution is to break the habit and stop buying games until I play the ones I already have (but the steam sales are so good!). But while I work on that, I think it's important to look at the other issues that come with owning everything in the cloud.
Keeping track of what you own - Having games stored in the cloud certain saves on physical space but it makes it harder to keep track of what I already own. I can no longer look at my game collection on the bookshelf to see what I may already have. Because I own games through Amazon, Steam, GOG, and Origin, I need to keep track of which service has what game through some kind of system. Currently I store all digital receipts in Gmail and then search for a game I think I may own already before purchasing it. However, this requires me to remember which games I own and which I don't. And with over 400 games and counting it gets harder and harder to do that.
Cappuccino effect - If you drink coffee regularly and don't make it yourself or have it free at work, you come to realize that you spend an awful amount on that habit. I tend to go to Starbucks, and just coffee is about $2. You go for something with espresso and you are looking at $4 or above. If we average $3 for five days then you have just spent $15 per week. At 48 weeks a year that adds up to $720 per year just for coffee. That is a lot of money to spend on just one habit. The same behavior can also apply to games that go on sale for 75% - they don't cost a lot of money but the costs can add up quickly.
Of course, first-world problem jokes aside, this problem of keeping track of your library will only get much worse as the digital market expands and more people migrate their collections to the cloud. I might be an outlier now but as more people switch to buying games digitally this issue will start to become more visible and eventually someone will need to figure out the best solution to fix it.
- Amazon
- Steam
- GOG
- Origin
- Many others
I love the competition that results in lower prices for my games but as I have purchased over 400 digital games (and counting), I have discovered new issues that arise from owning so many games that you don't have sitting on a shelf.
First, we should start with how I use to take stock of my game collection - by looking at the bookshelf. Like movies, I would stack all of my games in a bookshelf organized by platform. Just by glancing at them, I could tell how many games I own (and consequently how many games I still haven't finished). It acted as a constraint against the purchase of new games because if I had a lot of games sitting on the shelf then I knew I didn't need to go out and buy more. Once I finished a game, I could sell it on ebay. If I sold enough of them, then I could look at the bookshelf, see that I was low on games, and feel fine about purchasing more.
With the rise of digital distribution, I no longer have a stocked bookshelf. So whenever I look at it I feel like I need to get more games. If possible, I always buy the PC version of a game (unless it was a horrible port) when it goes on sale. And due to Steam and others, there are tons of sales going on all the time. So the combination of amazing savings and the drive to purchase new games has led to me owning more than I have time to play.
Now, the easy solution is to break the habit and stop buying games until I play the ones I already have (but the steam sales are so good!). But while I work on that, I think it's important to look at the other issues that come with owning everything in the cloud.
Problems:
Multiple copies of games - I've only accidentally done this once (that I know of), but I once bought Dragon Age through a steam sale only to realize I already owned the game on Origin. I discovered this fact because I was about to do the same for Dragon Age 2 until I did a Gmail search and found the receipts for both Origin and Steam. Thankfully they were both cheap but it was still quite a shock. It was then that I realized I needed a way to figure out what I owned which leads to the next problem...Keeping track of what you own - Having games stored in the cloud certain saves on physical space but it makes it harder to keep track of what I already own. I can no longer look at my game collection on the bookshelf to see what I may already have. Because I own games through Amazon, Steam, GOG, and Origin, I need to keep track of which service has what game through some kind of system. Currently I store all digital receipts in Gmail and then search for a game I think I may own already before purchasing it. However, this requires me to remember which games I own and which I don't. And with over 400 games and counting it gets harder and harder to do that.
Cappuccino effect - If you drink coffee regularly and don't make it yourself or have it free at work, you come to realize that you spend an awful amount on that habit. I tend to go to Starbucks, and just coffee is about $2. You go for something with espresso and you are looking at $4 or above. If we average $3 for five days then you have just spent $15 per week. At 48 weeks a year that adds up to $720 per year just for coffee. That is a lot of money to spend on just one habit. The same behavior can also apply to games that go on sale for 75% - they don't cost a lot of money but the costs can add up quickly.
Solutions:
There is an easy solution to all of these problems - only buy a couple of games at a time until you finish them and move on. But given how deals are structured, in order to achieve the best price for a game some forethought and advanced purchasing is required. One possible solution is to limit how many games you buy that you aren't playing currently, no matter what deals are going on. That would ensure you bought some cheap games but don't go overboard and buy more than you need. Once you finish some games then the queue opens up and you can proceed to buy more games.Of course, first-world problem jokes aside, this problem of keeping track of your library will only get much worse as the digital market expands and more people migrate their collections to the cloud. I might be an outlier now but as more people switch to buying games digitally this issue will start to become more visible and eventually someone will need to figure out the best solution to fix it.
Microsoft IllumiRoom has a chance
Microsoft Research has garnered a bit of a reputation for vaporware. Just google (or bing) the Microsoft Courier or the original Microsoft Surface (now known as pixelsense). Both were really cool projects that seemed like they could change how you interacted with the world. Both were cost prohibitive and didn't depart strongly enough from established products like laptops, tablets, and non-interactive display surfaces. To put it simply, there just wasn't enough demand for these niche projects to go beyond anything more than low-volume or prototype stages.
Microsoft Research's latest baby is IllumiRoom. The best way to describe it is to just let you see it.
This is bridging the gap between virtual reality and standard displays. On initial review, it seemed over the top and I immediately wrote it off. A decent projector can cost thousands of dollars and would have to be mapped to the room exactly to not mess with the television display itself and give you a good picture. Paint and carpet colors need to be factored in, as well as furniture. I just didn't feel it would be a sensible purchase for your average gamer.
However, perhaps the system isn't is expensive as previously expected. The technology relies on 2 critical pieces: A) Mapping the room, B) Projecting the peripheral information. For A, the kinect already does this to a certain extent. A 'kinect 2.0' could certainly not only map the room but also adjust for colors and lighting, as well as map what people were in the room. Technology wise, it might be close to production ready at consumer level costs. The importance of this mapping technology can't be ignored - this is where the flexibility of the IllumiRoom really shines. It could be made to work for basically any room, regardless of setup. For B, admittedly my main limiting factor, the linchpin is realizing that a higher quality projector is totally unnecessary. The IllumiRoom is designed to extend your peripheral vision, where your visual acuity is substantially lower. You could project a 640x480 200" picture and as long as your central vision is focused on the television, you could even say that it is a retina display. A very cheap, low resolution display paired with an extended picture adjustment system (zoom, focus, keystone, etc) would work perfectly for this purpose.
This is by no means cheap for your standard gamer, but could very well bring things into the realm of possibility. A $300 kinect + projector package is certainly marketable. Finally, the next Xbox is set to be revealed within the next few months. While 4K TVs were all the rage at CES, that technology is still quite a while away, and TV's need to grow another 20-30 inches before it becomes useful. So that means that the next Xbox will be rocking hardware that is basically overkill for 1080p. Yes, even at 1080p textures, character models, framerates (60 fps!) will be substantially better than the Xbox 360, but we will definitely be far into the diminishing returns curve while fixed at 1080p. I'm sure the next Xbox has more than enough horsepower to drive an extended field of vision.
There are some final hurdles to overcome. For example, both the kinect and projector would basically have to be behind, above, or next to the player - all are somewhat awkward positions - especially when you factor in the power cords and connectors. However, the driving force that could overcome these hurdles shouldn't be ignored either. The wow factor. Immersion technology has been way to expensive or gimmicky (3D glasses) to really work. It typically offers lower fidelity picture quality for only one person - but people typically agree that its pretty awesome - just not practical. This is a simple and flexible immersion technology that could be near market ready, visible to everyone, and within reaching distance for cost.
Microsoft Research's latest baby is IllumiRoom. The best way to describe it is to just let you see it.
This is bridging the gap between virtual reality and standard displays. On initial review, it seemed over the top and I immediately wrote it off. A decent projector can cost thousands of dollars and would have to be mapped to the room exactly to not mess with the television display itself and give you a good picture. Paint and carpet colors need to be factored in, as well as furniture. I just didn't feel it would be a sensible purchase for your average gamer.
However, perhaps the system isn't is expensive as previously expected. The technology relies on 2 critical pieces: A) Mapping the room, B) Projecting the peripheral information. For A, the kinect already does this to a certain extent. A 'kinect 2.0' could certainly not only map the room but also adjust for colors and lighting, as well as map what people were in the room. Technology wise, it might be close to production ready at consumer level costs. The importance of this mapping technology can't be ignored - this is where the flexibility of the IllumiRoom really shines. It could be made to work for basically any room, regardless of setup. For B, admittedly my main limiting factor, the linchpin is realizing that a higher quality projector is totally unnecessary. The IllumiRoom is designed to extend your peripheral vision, where your visual acuity is substantially lower. You could project a 640x480 200" picture and as long as your central vision is focused on the television, you could even say that it is a retina display. A very cheap, low resolution display paired with an extended picture adjustment system (zoom, focus, keystone, etc) would work perfectly for this purpose.
This is by no means cheap for your standard gamer, but could very well bring things into the realm of possibility. A $300 kinect + projector package is certainly marketable. Finally, the next Xbox is set to be revealed within the next few months. While 4K TVs were all the rage at CES, that technology is still quite a while away, and TV's need to grow another 20-30 inches before it becomes useful. So that means that the next Xbox will be rocking hardware that is basically overkill for 1080p. Yes, even at 1080p textures, character models, framerates (60 fps!) will be substantially better than the Xbox 360, but we will definitely be far into the diminishing returns curve while fixed at 1080p. I'm sure the next Xbox has more than enough horsepower to drive an extended field of vision.
There are some final hurdles to overcome. For example, both the kinect and projector would basically have to be behind, above, or next to the player - all are somewhat awkward positions - especially when you factor in the power cords and connectors. However, the driving force that could overcome these hurdles shouldn't be ignored either. The wow factor. Immersion technology has been way to expensive or gimmicky (3D glasses) to really work. It typically offers lower fidelity picture quality for only one person - but people typically agree that its pretty awesome - just not practical. This is a simple and flexible immersion technology that could be near market ready, visible to everyone, and within reaching distance for cost.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Project Shield Update
After watching this interview from Sessler (who asked questions that I still had), my excitement has been dampened somewhat. It seems that all video streaming will occur at 720p, which is fine for the handheld but that same resolution will be piped to the television over HDMI as well.
One of the awesome things about PC gaming is the ability to play games at a high resolution with a high frame rate. If I'm stuck at 720p on my 55 inch television, then it makes more sense just to lug the PC into the living room so I can get the 1080p resolution and remove any latency issues whatsoever.
Still a cool device but at only 720p it starts to lose its appeal.
One of the awesome things about PC gaming is the ability to play games at a high resolution with a high frame rate. If I'm stuck at 720p on my 55 inch television, then it makes more sense just to lug the PC into the living room so I can get the 1080p resolution and remove any latency issues whatsoever.
Still a cool device but at only 720p it starts to lose its appeal.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Project Shield Impressions
Nvidia has revealed a new device that is both controller and screen at the same time. You can read about the device here but I was most floored by the potential of streaming games. At first it seemed pretty gimmicky but after I thought more about it I discovered some wonderful uses to expand the technology that I hope they take advantage of:
- Streaming PC Games wirelessly in the home
- The most important issue with this will be lag but if they can make it seamless then this sounds to be pretty awesome. Imagine having your huge tower tucked away in a cold place in your house and sitting on your couch with just a controller on your big screen TV - you could get rid of the noise and mess of cables but still enjoy the beefy graphics you only get from a PC.
- For those that prefer the Keyboard/Mouse combo then those could be hooked up to some very small box which would be tied to a monitor. Nvidia didn't announce that but I imagine that would be the next step. You would still be limiting the wires needed and reducing clutter.
- Streaming PC Games outside the home
- This would essentially replace what Onlive does except it would come from your own computer - meaning it would probably not have enough upload bandwidth to support it unless you have Google Fiber. I don't see this as viable currently - unless they somehow integrate it with some Grid servers to provide the necessary bandwidth.
I already have both the Vita and 3DS so I don't foresee me wanting to play games on this controller/screen. I think the biggest benefit would be eliminating the need to have the PC Tower next to a monitor or TV thus removing the wire/dust problem that always arises from it.
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